Saturday Sept 15, 2007 - Madrid
As my last couple of days in Madrid draw to an end, I find myself looking upon the miracle of experience. I clearly remember my uncertainty before coming here: not knowing what to expect, looking at maps as just a jumble of data, and only having basic Spanish skills. Now, like finishing a good book, the plot has unraveled with a multitude of characters, memories and lessons worth remembering. Now when I look at the map I see the streets I walked, the people I met and all the sensory aspects one only gets from first-hand experience. The city has become a real place for me with it's own personality and life.

But as we all know, 3 months is hardly but a beginning in getting to know someone. And where relationships are concerned, don't they say that's when the honeymoon is over? I am sad to leave Madrid just as I'm getting familiar with it, but I also know that despite all its wonderfulness, it is not quite the place I want to live right now. It's hard for me to believe that I'm actually thinking this, but I'm looking forward to being back in LA for a while. At least I need some time to digest this experience and then perhaps nostalgia will draw me back. It's not you Madrid, it's me.

Madrid is a busy city and at times just down-right crowded. At peak hours the metro can become quite crowded and I remember more than a few times being jammed in with barely room to stand. That combined with the occasional broken air conditioner made for a miserable experience of heat, sweat, bad odors and the constant vigilance for pick-pockets.

This however is not to express a lack of appreciation for the metro, which is actually quite efficient and well designed. If only LA had such a system! (Maybe by 2100.) It's great to be able to hop on the metro and pop out on the other side of the city for less than a euro. It's fun too to figure out the map and cleverly plan routes to indirect destinations. And for this the metro in Madrid excels. I heard many travelers, lost in the world of Spanish-speaking mayhem, say "at least the metro is easy to use!". And it's true. Ah, life without a car. There are certain compromises of course, but it was refreshing for a while to have public transportation and not feel guilty going across town just because I felt like it.

And while Madrid does not have any beaches or rivers, it does have beautiful parks, most notably el Parque del Retiro, a huge sprawling landscape of trees, recreational area, fountains and monuments. On the weekend it's alive with people playing, roller-skating, biking, running or just relaxing in the shade with an ice-cream. It's an ideal place to go for a stroll with a book or to spend time with a friend. It also turned out to be a great place to meet people for 'intercambios', or language exchanges.

I started doing intercambios after my first few weeks in the city. After my Spanish classes ended, I had a void in my social life and this seemed to be a great way to both meet new people and to continue learning Spanish. I posted an announcement on the web and in no time I had a busy schedule. Really there are tons of people in Madrid learning to speak English, so it was rather easy. Most of the people I met I only saw once or twice, however there were a few I saw regularly and developed some good friendships with.

It was through intercambios that I met my good friend Livia, a beautiful girl from Venezuela who has lived in Madrid for the past 5 years. We originally met once a week to practice speaking but we got along so well that it naturally ended up that we became friends and we've spent a lot of time together in the past couple months. She is one person I'm going to miss a lot when I leave, and someone I hope to stay in contact with. This is again one of those difficulties with my chosen lifestyle; compromises for being a nomad.

With the choices I had in coming to Spain, I am very happy I chose Madrid. My other top choice was Barcelona, but after making a short trip there I looked back on Madrid favorably as the place most suited for me. Don't get me wrong, Barcelona is a great place (I want to please everybody) but the time of year I went there it was full of tourists (me included) and many of the main sites to see were under repairs. I would really like to go back someday in the spring or fall and see it in all it's glory.

It was also through some fortune that I got to experience several other cities of Spain. I have my brother Richard, my friend Pat, and Angela, one of my friends from school, to thank for that! Richard and I made a trip to San Sebastián and Bilbao in early July. Then I went to Zaragoza and Salamanca with Angela. And then Pat came in August and we went to Barcelona and a few cities in the south. There really is just too much to tell about and I have literally a thousand photos. There were however a couple of sites that were really spectacular and remain my favorites in Spain.

La Alhambra in Granada rates up there among the top. I have Pat and his friend to thank for the recommendation to go there. After visiting so many cathedrals, palaces and museums of religious art, La Alhambra stands out as a wonderful piece of architecture on the top of a hill overlooking Granada. It captures an idealized scenic beauty with it's incredibly detailed stone-carved building juxtaposed with gardens and the expanding landscape below. It reflects my preference for natural beauty and scenery over the opulence found in cathedrals and palaces, which to me were always trying too hard to be beautiful and pure, carrying with it a certain grotesqueness which I can only barely overcome by appreciating the craftsmanship.

Which brings me to one of my other favorite places, Salamanca. This is a city north-west of Madrid and for it's relatively small size it contains a surprising richness of architecture and beauty. Like any good Spanish city it has a plethora of cathedrals and churches, but some of the most aesthetically pleasing one's I have ever seen. The main cathedral of the city also has access to the roof with little walkways that lead out to great vistas of both the amazing architecture of the church and the surrounding landscape. And the city itself is quaint and so picturesquely Spanish.

In the end, there is so much to see in Spain that I find myself confusing it all with my senses dulled by too many impressive things. I'm no longer interested in 'impressive' for a while. And now, I'm returning to LA, the last I remember being quite gray and dreary, so I don't have to worry about going to another cathedral or palace again for a while. Though I will miss my friends in Spain and a I will miss Madrid.

Now it's time for me to focus on what I want to do next. Really, I am quite tired of traveling and I miss having a place that is my own. I'm looking forward to settling down again for a while, perhaps finding an apartment again and do something crazy, like buy a car. Traveling will always be an option, but I've learned that being a nomad is quite difficult.